Judge Pushes Fall Retrial Before Harvey Weinstein Sentencing

A Manhattan judge said he could sentence Harvey Weinstein on 30 September, but only if prosecutors drop or quickly retry an unresolved rape charge that a jury could not decide earlier this year. The 73-year-old former movie producer was convicted in June of forcing oral sex on production assistant Miriam Haley in 2006, a crime that carries up to 25 years in prison. Jurors acquitted him of sexually assaulting model Kaja Sokola and deadlocked on whether he raped hairstylist-actor Jessica Mann in 2013. At a hearing on Wednesday, Judge Curtis Farber rejected the district attorney’s request to wait until January for a third trial on the Mann allegation and urged that it be held this autumn, saying “the case needs to be tried this year.” Prosecutors said Mann is willing to testify again; Weinstein’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala, told the court he also prefers the earliest possible date but has not ruled out negotiating a resolution. The maneuvering keeps Weinstein’s #MeToo-era case in the spotlight as District Attorney Alvin Bragg campaigns for re-election. Any conviction on the remaining charge would add at most four years to Weinstein’s sentence—less than the time he has already served—yet its outcome will determine whether Farber can proceed with sentencing on the more serious Haley conviction. Weinstein, who appeared in court in a wheelchair, denies all allegations and is separately appealing a California sex-crime conviction.